My FMP is a online photography story book throughout someones live via their eyes. It will start from their birth, first sights, to the point where they are old enough to leave the nest and start out on their own life for uni/work. The idea behind this project is to think of someone’s eyes as a camera, capturing moments in your life and displaying them as a book. The question of my project is: “What do we see throughout life?”

What Research can I do?

I plan to research multiple things to cover this project. One of the things I will need to do is research and plan the stages of life the individual from baby to adult. What things they might see, interact with, behave with and react too. I can do this by doing some online research for secondary sources as well as doing questionnaires, interviews and/or surveys to find out what people can think of that sticks out when they interacted with things at a certain age.

Once that is planned out, I will need to research the stages of eye development for the infant stages as a child’s eye sight isn’t clear / wide until a later age. Once I learn and find out all the information I need for this topic, I can research as well as practice methods on how to give off this effect with my camera. I can obtain this information by using both secondary research, primary and qualitative. If this however doesn’t happen due to it being a vast subject or not getting enough information to be comfortable to practice it in, I shall style all the images still through the point of view as planned but in the style of an online scrap book instead.

Finally, I will create a storyboard for m photography timeline. It will be around 5- images per year of age. I will design this in the usual style of a storyboard if this was a video, however keep the images basic due to there being so many because of the ages going between 0-18. Once this storyboard is done, I will be able to use it as a checklist for what photographs I will be taking.

With this information and research, I should be able to produce a final project without many flaws. It covers the topics I need to learn and understand as well as plans out my project smoothly so I can follow a complete timeline of what to do and how to do it. Once the research is complete I will create the storyboard, then proceed to complete the project by following it to the best of my ability.

Questions for Interview: These are the questions I shall be asking a group of people the following questions, aiming for simple answers. The reason for this is because I want the simplistic images of the words the say. If something needs describing or they want to explain in more detail, I will ask for them to do as so if they can.

1/ What is the first thing you remember seeing?

2/ What is your earliest memory?

3/ What memory comes to mind when you think of your childhood?

4/ What memory comes to mind when you think of your teen-hood?

5/ Is there a memory which comes to mind that makes you feel happy?

6/ Is there a memory which comes to mind that makes you feel unhappy?

7/ Are there any mental images from any years of your life that stick out?

Evaluation: Through these results, I can see that there is a vast amount of memories that people can have but can connect together in away. Some feedback I got about these questions was that they were rather difficult to answer and I got a response that looking back at some of their memories was almost painful and upsetting.

The results on the question about “are there any upsetting memories that come to mind” had some similar results such as loosing someone or failing at something. Another answer that had similar answers was the question of “What is the first thing you remember ever seeing?” which lead to answers mostly consisting of them seeing their mother and/or father.

From this information I have gathered, I have gained more of an idea of what I can capture throughout the photography progress and using some of these ideas to show through my project that life has many ups and downs like a roller coaster.

Project Layout Designs:

I am gonna have my project in the style of a scrap book. When asking around my class for some unique and personal design ideas, a couple of classmates offered to show me what their scrapbook designs looked like to give me a vast idea of what II should do with mine. Each page or two will be related to the age of the child, depending on what part of the book we are at. As the point of view individual is getting old, so do the pages with the surrounding pictures and related background growing up with them. This is one of the styles that I could do for my project, thanks to Zoe Midwinter, a scattered image style with interactive background text and images related to the images. I like how every page is different in its own way and how the images sizes and positions are all different on each page.

The next design I looked at was from another classmate, Meghan Truscott. Her scrapbook has a more simplistic and neat style to it unlike Zoe’s scrapbook. It has room for more images on it as well as some related captions that are next to some of the photos. Another thing I like about Meghan’s design is that it has a lot of subheadings such as “Sisters” and “Best Friends” so you know what you are gonna see on each page. It also has room for some little designs of art around some of the pages such as flowery banners and some little faces. This scrapbook is designed to look cute but maintain a consistent nostalgia feel to it as you read on. The style is simplistic and effective with pages easy to locate when you are looking for something specific. I would take the subheading idea from this design to help tell with my book what stage of growth we are in when you open the book on a random page.

After looking at both designs of these scrap books, I can see the pros and cons of each as well as see how both are effective and stylish to show off their images and tell a story. However, the style I would like to use for my project would be similar to the first scrap book design. I like how this one makes the pages look unique on every page with lots of information and creativity behind it all. I feel that I can make some pretty creative pages and evolve the book in general as the book moves forward to grow up with the child who is portrayed. A weakness of this design however could be that there can be too much on one page that will loose focus of the actual story being told, so finding the balance will need to be one of the top priorities.

Overall, my findings though not as vast as previous projects, have been effective. Through a simple survey, I found out a lot about many peoples past memories and favourite moments in their life which I will use towards my storyboard and book. I learnt that even though there are lots of happy memories that people cherish and protect, that there are also a lot of sad and dark memories that haunt the paint and cannot be forgotten, yet help us move forward and make the future us stronger because of them. So my images wont be just a “fairy tale” like story where there is only positivity and happiness, because that isn’t how life is sadly. It will show the struggles, challenges and tough times of a typical human being to help create a more believable and relatable person within the book.

With this topic that I have chosen, my research was limited, however it will continue to conduct research as the project goes on. I did surveys and interviews with other people to get into their mind and get some personal and unique information as well as read some personal stories of my own to get an idea of the timeline I will have to complete. I did look into the biology of the human eye’s development at a young age, but due to lack of source material that wasn’t online, as well as the interview with a local opticians having to be cancelled due to time constraints, I decided to not put any more pressure on the topic and move forward, using my contingency plan of laying it out as a scrap book instead. I would of liked to of continued to try and follow with the idea of the whole human eye development idea due to the chance to show off some unique camera skills and show real growth and progression in not just image form but also in senses. I feel it was the right call to do however as I don.t want to rush this project, nor make any mistakes because I set the bar too high. Through this research process, I have been able to conduct a large amount of primary and qualitative research with some secondary research too.

The next tasks for me now is to create a storyboard for all the years from the start of life to the age of independence (18). Once these storyboards are done, I can use them as a check list to take the photos of what I need to cover a page of each year, then design the background covers in relation to the age that they are.

My FMP is a online photography story book throughout someones live via their eyes. It will start from their birth, first sights, to the point where they are old enough to leave the nest and start out on their own life for uni/work. The idea behind this project is to think of someone’s eyes as a camera, capturing moments in your life and displaying them as a book. The question of my project is: “What do we see throughout life?”

What Research can I do?

I plan to research multiple things to cover this project. One of the things I will need to do is research and plan the stages of life the individual from baby to adult. What things they might see, interact with, behave with and react too. I can do this by doing some online research for secondary sources as well as doing questionnaires, interviews and/or surveys to find out what people can think of that sticks out when they interacted with things at a certain age.

Once that is planned out, I will need to research the stages of eye development for the infant stages as a child’s eye sight isn’t clear / wide until a later age. Once I learn and find out all the information I need for this topic, I can research as well as practice methods on how to give off this effect with my camera. I can obtain this information by using both secondary research, primary and qualitative. If this however doesn’t happen due to it being a vast subject or not getting enough information to be comfortable to practice it into my practical work, I shall skip this part of the project and instead as a contingency plan make the project look more like a memory scrap book throughout the ears.

I will also need to browse things such as magazines and books of different stages of development throughout life to gain an understanding of what I should capture and how I should display it. I need to gain an understanding of what others might of experienced through life that I might not have throughout my childhood/teens.

Also, I will be asking others about their memories and experiences that I can use within this project. There will be set questions that I will layout and take notes during the interview to show my research.

Finally, I need to work out production costs and set ups. What equipment will I need to complete this project? How will I obtain the photographs, how I will edit them and display them. I have already asked a few people of friends and family that have have offered to help and assist me that will be credited within the project.

The topic that I am interested and passionate about is landscape photography. The thing about this topic that interests me the most is the fact that the landscape can be crafted into any design or piece of art. It has a personal taste to it and can be made easily into your own image. Also, unlike photography that focuses on people in it which pose unnaturally, nature doesn’t need to pose or be edited in anyway so it looks better in my eyes and more natural. One of the final things that makes me passionate about this subject and interests me is how a simple photograph can capture a moment in time and display it instantly. It is like, capturing memories through what your eye sees and that has always been a thing that I love about photography which is the main purpose of it all.

Throughout this research, I will be looking at a different range of photographers that use the same style of capturing the image as I will via POV. I want to see how their styles are different from others and how I can take ideas from each of them and incorporate it into my own final major project. The reason why I am looking at only these kind of photographers is because it relates to my project and will help me get a better idea of what I need to do to make my project the best it can be. If I cant find many good or different POV photographers then I shall look at different styles of photography and discuss how I can use their techniques into my project.

Doing this project will be difficult and involve a lot of work and forward planning which I am aware of. I need to research into the timeline of a growing person and what they might interact with as well as visually see. Also adjusting the camera angle to the height from the point of view from each growing group will need some thought.

Analysis:

Timur Zhansultanov

This photograph was taken by Timur Zhansultanov who specializes in photography from his point of view in a style where it feels you can actually see from his pair of eyes. This style has been a project that he has been doing since 2011 with the slogan “In my own eyes.” The style and message he gets across with this kind of photography is to show the simplest and everyday tasks through a different pair of eyes, to get an original and unique perspective from his images. He has shots that cover all kind of scenes such as this one shows of him hunting, but also having others such as cooking, working or skateboarding.

The method he uses to capture these photos is not too clear however through some research it can be said that for at least some of his photographs, he uses a Cannon 550D. The idea of him using a camera such as that, which is rather bulky and heavy, while being attached to his head is impractical however effective. It is said according to the research given: “His images are shot at a 10mm focal length, and given he’s shooting with the 550D’s crop factor of 1.6x, this works out to be 16mm, which very reasonably reflects the field of view for a pair of human eyes.” – https://petapixel.com/2013/05/20/in-my-own-eyes-point-of-view-pictures-by-timur-zhansultanov/

The idea’s are unique especially when considering the lengths of impracticality he is going through to take the photos as close to the point of it looking like an actual image through someone else’s eyes. Looking at the image above, he as understood and mastered the different styles someone can look at something. Obviously when it comes to this kind of style, anyone can just point a camera at something as if they were looking at something. However, Timur takes it to a different level through this image by making the image itself look down the scope of the gun he is wielding, while having the background surround the viewer with none of the trees looking straight like they wouldn’t from a human’s eye perspective.

This image and this style of shooting images is very unique, original and creative. Changing the simplest of takes and the basic ideas which for most people and viewers would seem dull has been reinvented into something exciting. It appeals to any viewer as it is daily tasks via photography. However if someone wanted to, lets say go hunting; but couldn’t afford it or had morals but wants to see what it is like to hunt, they could look at this image and get the feel and idea of it all. It is open to all ages, genders with no restrictions making it a style of photography that anyone can enjoy.

This photograph was taken by Mark Johns who occasionally uses the style of street photography by using a Go Pro camera. A Go Pro camera is a small mountable camera that can be used to take photos as well as record video and is commonly used for mounting onto cycle helmets, skydiving and underwater diving due to them being waterproof. It is a perfectly little piece of equipment to capture images such as this as it is small, light, practical, mountable and adjustable.

Mark, from Australasia, decided to quit his normal job to become a full time photographer and digital arts specialist. In time, his main focus was photography and aimed to practice and perfect street photography while using the Go Pro. He chooses the go pro over any other camera because a normal camera is big and chunky which has people react or pose unnaturally due to the big lenses being focused towards them. The Go Pro is subtle, light and allows you to get a lot closer to people while getting a more natural shot from the individuals. The method he uses to capture these photographs is by attaching the Go Pro to his head or chest while setting the timer on it to take a photo every one second to which he will later review later on and select the best photos. He aims to act naturally as if he was looking around a street like any other person, however some planning is involved especially if he wants some interesting shots so those in his mind take priority.

“The best Street Photographs are generally taken when the camera does not catch the subjects attention.” – Mark Johns

Even though the Go Pro isn’t really suited for this style of photography, aiming for more action or sports videos or images, it still does the job well and can be molded into any task given. A few of the downsides of these cameras and style of shooting is the lack of flash, zoom and focus. You kinda get what you get in the moment and can’t control the lighting or angles too much, yet that also is a positive in giving it a more natural street feel to it all.

These kind of images are targeted at all audiences. There are no specific age, genders or orientations that these can be aimed for, it is simply a natural photograph down a street. It is a style of photography that anyone can do and has a simplistic art to it while having shots that are unique and have their own character to them. Even though it isn’t from an exact eye point, but from an eye height, you can still get a feel of what he can see and how natural it is to capture.

Analysing these two different ways of point of view photography, each of them send the message of the style of POV photography and accomplish it by using different ways to do as such. Timur uses a heavy but normal camera for photography to capture his shots while Mark uses a smaller more practical Go Pro which isn’t really designed for that style but still works. Each of them give the illusion of it being an image you can see from your someone else’s eyes but again in different styles. Timur’s images show his movements such as his hands and arms (in this case, him holding the gun) to give the illusion there is no camera there at all while Mark’s images show little interaction when it comes to this so you feel like you are his eyes, but also the camera.

The images share a unique idea to them where they are all natural daily tasks or events. From just walking down the street and seeing different things + capturing them to doing tasks or activities such as the hunting photograph. Each of them are great at putting the person looking at the image in that spot and giving them the feel that those are their eyes.

Analysing these images has given me the idea of what to take from each, what is different and what is the same. I like the more interactive feel the way the first section of images gave as you can see them as if it was his eyes. You can see his hands, movements and with no filter or effects to make it feel as real as possible. I do also like the second section of photos, I love how natural they feel and taken in the moment. If I was to use either one of these image designs towards my own project, then I think it would be the first ones due to the fact that my images are designed to be a persons life growing up and we are viewing it through their eyes. This includes their movements, actions and interactions.

My FMP is going to be a photograph story book montage of the beginning of a boys life from the point of birth to moving out for work/university to become his own person. These are the questions I will be using to obtain some primary research.

1/ Do you have any favourite memories from when you were an infant? Do you remember from any stories told by your family or from photos people might have shown you as a child?

When I was very young, around 4-6 months old my mother took me to see my gran. When we were leaving hers to make our way home my mother bumped into someone she knew and stopped at the top of the hill that my gran lived on to talk to her and have a catch up. My mother thought she applied the breaks onto the pram that was holding me on to talk to this person, however she did not. As soon as she let go I rolled down the hill with her and her friend chasing for me. Luckily, I stopped and got caught on the curb without any harm apart from giving my mother and her friend a bit of a heart attack.

2/ Do you have any favourite memories from when you were a child? What was your favourite moment from primary school? Did you have any friendships from then that you still have to this day?

When I was in primary school, there was our year 6 play. I was in charge of the sound such as the audio effects and whenever the songs came on playing the backing tracks. There was one time where the person who was playing the PE teacher was sick and I had to cover them which I was dreading due to me having stage fright at the time. When it came for me to preform my part, I was shaking so much that I forgot the script and kinda just winged it, but it did some how all work out. Once it was over I returned to doing the audio again to get told by my teacher that I did a great job, even though it was very random but it apparently made the part more funny which was good. It is something that me and my friend Reece, who I have been friends with since year 3 still talk about to this day and have a good laugh.

3/ Do you have any favourite memories from when you were a teenager? Any events or special occasions that really stand out? Any friendships you made that you still have to this day? Any memories from secondary school? Any relationship memories?

When I was a teenager at secondary school, around year 9, I for some reason got into a lot of fights. I usually came out on top when it came to fights and built a bit of a reputation as “the one to challenge and beat” which I kind of just accepted. I had fights with quite a few people in my year and won which lead the higher years also getting interested. I fought the year above people and won practically most of them too, however then I got challenged by a few in year 11 who were a lot bigger than me. I foolishly accepted their challenge (I think I was being too cocky) and fought them one after the other. Even though I was hurt I did somehow win against them. That is when this year 11 called Thomas who I would later nickname Hutch challenged me later on. I accepted, probably thinking just another one to beat, which was a great mistake. Turns out, he is a black belt in karate and he completely dominated me, beating me so bad that he actually carried me to my next class.

A normal person would give up and call it quits from there, but not me, I think my pride was damaged and I wanted a rematch. I was by next to a building wall and he was up on a hill in front of me. He accepted and ran towards me, once he got close I side stepped and picked him up, quickly finishing him by dropping him straight onto concrete. That hurt him but the real thing he noticed was how close his head was to the wall next to me which was mere inches away from hitting him and busting him open. I helped him up after he admitted defeat and me and Hutch have been best mates ever since for 7/8 years.

4/ Is there anything through growing up that you regret or wish didn’t happen?

Only one thing really comes to mind. A cliche typical teenage break up. Long story short, I liked a girl called Enya from practically the first day of secondary school in year 7. I saw her often as she was in most of my classes and in my form so practically daily. We didn’t really speak until late year 8 – early year 9. We soon became friends in year 9 and became very close by the end of the year. We met up throughout the summer and continued to be friends at the start of year 10. I then confessed to her later on along the line which lead to me being used, manipulated and bullied by her and her friends. People were turned against me and it made me mentally sick, so bad that I dropped out by year 11. It wasn’t a fun time and I regret most of it and the events leading up to it.